US Cities Hate Cyclists, and That Ain't Changing Anytime Soon

Europe dominates the bike-friendly city index, again

By Diane Rommel

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28 August 2017

It's possibly no great surprise that a Copenhagen-based urban planning agency might conclude that Copenhagen is the world's best cycling city — in fact, it's the second year in a row that the Danish capital took the title, ending Amsterdam's run in the top spot.

That said, European cities are dominant, and massively so, with 18 of them taking spots in the top 20. Copenhagen is tops, but there's room for Utrecht, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Munich, Antwerp, Vienna and more.

What you won't see much of is cities outside Europe.

First, at number nine, we have Tokyo — and then, way down at number 20, Montréal, the only city in North America to appear on the list. The index's authors single out the Plateau neighborhood as particularly successful, while warning that the city might face competition from elsewhere in the Americas in the years to come. ("Why isn't the bike share system open year round?")